There have been several previous posts (including this one, War Between the Fabers) about the lawsuit A.W. Faber filed against the Eberhard Faber Company at the turn of the 20th century. The main issue at hand was whether the labeling of pencils with “E. Faber” caused brand confusion with “A.W. Faber.”

The result was that Eberhard Faber was required to stop labeling pencils with only an initial or initials followed by “Faber.” There are additional subtleties to the suit and its resolution but the document pictured above and below is a witness to that time: it’s one of the original letters sent out by the company in 1903 notifying business partners of the change.